Somnolence
by Novoux
Summary: Izaya, no matter what Shizuo tries, can't sleep. Shizaya


Shizuo watches Izaya's head sliding from his palm, his elbow bracing himself against the tiny table of Shizuo's apartment. "Again?" he turns on the light, having been watching the glow of the laptop screen from the open doorway of their bedroom. Izaya's eyes don't catch his, drowsily open and to slits, just barely catching the light blaring from his laptop.

Izaya doesn't say anything, sighing softly enough Shizuo doesn't hear. He knows Izaya does from the reflexive shudder going down his spine, arching his shoulders before they shiver with the trickle of chills down his back. The blond sighs, watching his boyfriend from the wall that leads down the hallway, leaning against it as he racks his brain for ideas on how to approach tonight's bout of insomnia.

"How long have you been up?" He probably doesn't need the answer that, settling between all week and Izaya hasn't come to bed in four days. Instead, he keeps himself busy with pointless jobs, just giving himself the benefit of having something to occupy himself with. That, or it's gulping down far too many cups of coffee (Shizuo knows Izaya tries to sneak off with an extra tall mug in his hands when he's past the maximum amount of caffeine one person could consume) until Shizuo puts a stop to it, banning coffee past four in the evening.

His boyfriend, however, protests this more than he accepts his fate. Another sigh, fingers scratching at his scalp lightly indicate that Izaya hasn't had any luck with sleeping.

In the beginning Shizuo used to think that Izaya took up odd jobs at night to _avoid_ sleeping with him. Now, after one almost fight that turned into a lecture, he knows better than to assume that. If anything, he knows now that Izaya has a secret love to sleep as much as possible. Only fate decided that he should be the least deserving when it comes to what he needs.

Running a hand through his hair, Shizuo pads over to the kitchen table. A hand gently shuts down the laptop's screen, the other reaching for in between his boyfriend's shoulder blades. "You've got to see a doctor, and not Shinra..." he bends down, kissing the crown of Izaya's head before he pulls up a chair. "It's not gonna do you any good staying like this, 'zaya." He knows, without having to look at the barely there glare of annoyance, that Izaya doesn't care much for asking for a doctor to diagnose his insomnia. Much less treat it with pills.

But it's been weeks in a row now. Little to no sleep, only nodding off for very short periods of time, stretching up to an hour only two weeks ago. With the dwindling energy Izaya has, it bothers Shizuo more than he cares to admit.

The low murmur of Shizuo's voice raises the skin of Izaya's arms into gooseflesh, causing a strange tingling sensation at the back of his head. "'s not like..." Izaya yawns, stopping himself with a shake of his head, "it's anything to nag about, Shizu..."

"Oh yeah?" Shizuo moves close, moving his free hand to cover Izaya's resting on the table. With a gentle nuzzle he kisses his boyfriend, massaging messy shapes into his back. "'cause it is when you won't come to bed."

There it is again—that odd little shiver in the back of his head. Izaya leans into the kiss, allowing Shizuo to pepper his lips with dry kisses so long as those fingers keep stroking. Despite the exhaustion that makes his eyes burn wet, he can't feel any cling of it long enough to stay asleep. Closing his eyes in the impromptu not quite kissing and not quite making out developing between them becomes the next best thing.

Almost.

"Told you," Shizuo's fingers slip in between his. He pauses from the assault of one in the morning kisses to squeeze Izaya's hand lightly before a peck goes to each eyelid. "Can't fool me, flea."

Instead of replying, Izaya's arms fold over the table, pillowing his head with another whisper of a sigh. Shizuo glances back to the laptop, deciding to turn it off—it's just one he leaves at Shizuo's apartment while his apartment is going through an upgrade—and knowing that he's allowed to at least touch it before he does so. Lifting up the screen and shining the brightness on himself doesn't make Izaya stir, even if it burns into Shizuo's eyes before he turns it down to the lowest setting.

However, when he glances at the screen, no longer squinting or blind, he notices a search box on the page, sitting blankly in front of him. It gives him an idea, seeing as Izaya's shoulders still rise and fall, slowed with his breathing but still not anywhere close to sleeping.

 _[insomnia treatments]_ he types it in softly, careful not to make the clack of the keys too loud. The results come up for more medications, sleeping masks, and the same old usual things that Izaya's either tried or doesn't care for. Most of these, he notes as he scrolls through results, don't even sound like they'd help.

Another search _[chronic insomnia help]_ leads him to mainly the same things, except when he starts to give up hope, scrolling to the bottom of the page, he finds something different.

 _[ASMR – Autonomous sensory meridian response]_

Curious, he clicks on the link, leading to some informative website about this weird thing. Shizuo skims through it, too tired to read fully, he sees something about insomnia and something about it feeling good. Glancing back to Izaya, he clicks through a couple more pages on the site, somewhat confused by what it's called— _head tingles—_ amongst other names that don't make much sense.

The website offers a list of things that "trigger" ASMR, including whispering, feathers, and some other weird things Shizuo doesn't understand how to process for a minute. At the bottom are videos of ASMR examples with strange titles from role-playing to clicking noises. If he blinks, squinting his eyes at the videos, they're still the same weird titles.

He looks over them, almost hopeless because he doesn't understand what it's supposed to mean—nearly clicking the computer off until he finds one titled _ASMR Introduction: Whispering and Other Triggers._ The video doesn't look too bad compared to the other ones, and soon enough he clicks on the video, turning down the volume to listen.

A woman's voice comes in a low whisper, giving a greeting and whatnot. Shizuo finds himself unamused, though somewhat determined to watch the woman explain what ASMR is—like he hadn't just searched it up—and then proceed to hold up different items and explain what they are and how they work for triggering... _tingles._

Definitely weird stuff. Bizarre, mainly with the fact she doesn't seem at all concerned about what she's talking about. But as she continues on, explaining further on what ASMR can be used for, Shizuo starts to have an inkling of an idea, though still largely uncertain on what's to gain from these videos.

She talks about how these "triggers" work, causing a sensation supposedly in certain people like chills. Or, as she puts it, _"glitter down the back of your head"_ with different sounds and visuals. That, and ASMR can be used for different things from stress relief to insomnia, citing that she started ASMR due to insomnia and migraine headaches after searching online about it.

The video ends soon enough, leaving Shizuo to process the information. He closes out the web page, shutting down the laptop while Izaya yawns, curling in further on himself. Shizuo questions if Izaya even paid attention—probably not, with the fact he's barely coherent by the time Shizuo nudges his shoulder. It doesn't make him stir, continuing to sit numbly and in severe fatigue.

Shizuo thinks back to the video, wondering what to do with the new information, and if it'll work any more than anything else has. Well, if not, there's the chance that Izaya goes to see a doctor and get something for his insomnia. Which is doubtful to work, seeing as Izaya's brain is just as stubborn as he is and Izaya once explained it, though half awake and more muttering under his breath while Shizuo tried to keep him from falling out of his chair.

Out of all the weird things from the video, the whispering isn't the _worst_ per say. Some of those things, like the whispering, are actually somewhat okay with him, though his sleepiness doesn't really count when it's late in the morning. Though when he glances back to Izaya, thinking of the advice from the woman, he thinks there's no sense in not trying.

"'zaya," Shizuo turns to his boyfriend, waiting for the tired response of a low moan. "C'mere, let's go to bed."

Izaya's head turns to him, one eye cracking open with blank recognition. Without a fuss, Izaya lets Shizuo's arms around his shoulders and under his knees, pulling him up to be carried into the bedroom. Along the way, his head droops against Shizuo's chest, his arms loosely looping around the blond's neck more out of automatic response than any conscious one.

In bed, Shizuo closes the door behind them with his foot, carefully folding into bed while he moves Izaya to sit in between his legs. Izaya's head falls against his chest, bleary eyes glancing up at him when he questions Shizuo's tactics, too tired to say anything and too exhausted to care. Which leaves room for Shizuo to think over the video and the things he recalls, trying to think if anything would be useful for his boyfriend.

Drawing in a silent breath, he comes close to Izaya's ear. "Just sit still," he murmurs, trying to speak quietly and it's much harder than it seems. But then he feels a sudden shiver from Izaya, gone as soon as it comes. And it's only the smallest of reactions ever, but it still means that it _does_ something, which is better than nothing.

"I know you're tired," Shizuo continues, gently kissing the shell of Izaya's ear as he brings a hand up to stroke a cheek. "But this is better than sitting in front of a screen all night." His hand moves into smoothing down Izaya's hair, gently pulling his blunt fingernails across Izaya's scalp.

The shudder that comes from his boyfriend is undeniable. He doesn't even try to stop it, breathing a held sigh with the sudden part of his lips. Shizuo counts it as that ASMR stuff actually being credible, enough to at least get Izaya to relax thus far. His hand moves to the nape of Izaya's neck, massaging gingerly with kisses moving down Izaya's throat and over his jawline. Izaya's breaths start to even out, deepening even as the little shivers continue to race down his spine, pressed against Shizuo.

A noise, something Shizuo doesn't notice, has Izaya startled, stiffening against him as he snaps his eyes open. Shizuo sighs, reminding him to _relax_ and don't pay attention to anything else. Though it's not as simple as it sounds, leaving the blond to resort to more dry kisses and pulling Izaya back against him as his fingers move over Izaya's skin. They caress his cheek, Shizuo's thumb brushing against an ear as he moves to Izaya's forehead and temple before the lightest touch at the bridge of his nose, and then to the other cheek and slowly down his throat.

"Feels good?" Shizuo starts to notice how Izaya's barely responding anymore, his weight leaning further on Shizuo with each minute passing by.

No response has him brushing over Izaya's bangs, waiting to elicit a response of at least an eye or some sort of sigh. But with that, Shizuo realizes the soft breaths coming from Izaya aren't because he's awake, since he normally breathes through his nose.

The realization dawns on him. _Finally._

Carefully, Shizuo moves to slide Izaya under the covers next to him, wrapping an arm around his waist with one last kiss to the parted lips. Izaya doesn't react any more, curling into Shizuo's chest and maybe that ASMR has some plausible theory to it. Especially with having taken at least an hour, going by the time on the nightstand clock, to have any effect.

So long as it works, he muses to himself sleepily, it doesn't bother him what he does to get his boyfriend some sleep.

* * *

 _Another fluffy thing, oh dear._

 _Thank you for reading._


End file.
